Wife
jailed for crying rape to hide infidelity
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml
Telegraph
- 7th June 2005
An unfaithful
wife who accused a man of rape to cover up a one night stand with
him was jailed for 12 months yesterday.
Merete Underwood,
32, disappeared with the 34-year-old interior designer after chatting
him up during an evening out with her husband and two-year-old son
last February, Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court heard.
When she
realised that her husband, Toby, had reported her missing, she claimed
that she had been dragged off the street and raped.
She told
police that she had left the pub for a breath of fresh air when
a stranger bundled her into a car and drove her to a hotel room
where he and another man raped her.
The man
she had spent the night with was arrested and forced to spend 24
hours in a police cell after she identified him as one of the rapists.
For three months he endured the prospect of court action despite
protests of innocence.
Even after
being charged with perverting the course of justice, Underwood stuck
to her story, telling the truth only last May when the jury was
to be sworn in.
Underwood,
who is in the process of a divorce, wept as the judge told her that
her last-minute confession would not save her from jail.
"Rape
is an extremely serious offence and quite rightly any allegation
of rape is dealt with very seriously by police, as indeed is your
allegation," said Recorder Andrew McCooey. I have heard from
the prosecution the impact this had on this innocent man, not to
mention the many thousands of pounds that have been wasted, all
brought about by your pack of lies.
"And
you didn't have the decency to admit to it and put this man out
of his misery. You have shown no remorse in any meaningful way."
Joanne Hacking,
prosecuting, told the court earlier that Underwood was enjoying
an evening out with her son and husband when she went to the toilets
and never came back.
Mr Underwood,
34, returned home and went to sleep, waking up at 5am to discover
that his wife was still not there.
"Astounded
and worried", he reported her missing to the police,"
she said.
Minutes
later he received a call from his employer to say she had been found
and taken to a police station, where she made the false claim.
Miss Hacking
said the defendant went on to give a full description of one of
the alleged rapists and later identified the interior designer.
She finally confessed to chatting him up in a nearby bar and admitted
she had spent the night with him.
Mr Underwood
described his wife as "vindictive and deceitful".
Asked about
his feelings for the man falsely accused of rape, he said: "Nobody
deserves to be put through what he has been put through. He has
had a year of hell - it's appalling."
£80
fixed penalty for false rape claim 11th October 2004
